barack obama, his powers of persuasion are related to his talents as a writer. it was a speech at the jefferson jackson day dinner iowa that really launched his candidacy, and the power of the speech came from the fact that he sat down and he wrote it and he thought his argument through from beginning to end. and no other candidate had done that. so, i'm biased as a writer, but i think when the right discovers the next ronald reagan it will be a write ore one who can rate. and point three, the disagreement between reagan and buckley. one famously, of course, over the panama canal, which will buckley was right about. he supported giving the canal back, ronald reagan opposed it. the other over the inf treaty near the end of reagan's president si, and reagan obviously supported and bill opposed, and reagan was right about that. these two disputes tell something about the differing roles of an intellectual and policy. on the canal dispute reagan was playing to the crowd. as a nonpolitician, bill buckley had the opportunity to step back and evaluate the issue on its